


Merchant of Death

by Traxits



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Death Fic, Gen, JARVIS needs a hug, Kinkmeme, POV JARVIS (Iron Man movies), Prompt Fic, Robot Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-24
Updated: 2014-04-24
Packaged: 2018-01-20 14:18:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1513601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Traxits/pseuds/Traxits
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>JARVIS has three protocols he can run without being told.  The day comes that he has to run two of them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Merchant of Death

The day the Phoenix protocol was implemented, JARVIS shut down the house. All calls were carefully screened through a new voicemail system, Tony's cheerful voice talking about badassium and palladium and a well earned vacation, and JARVIS was the one conducting the symphony of whirrs and drills and mechanics in the house. Iron Man flew out only when absolutely necessary, on the missions that Fury himself called in for, and when he was done, he came straight home.

JARVIS missed the old days, and he ignored every call that came in. Pepper's calls were the hardest to put off, but she wouldn't come by the house since she and Tony had broken up six months before.

Even after the clean slate protocol, Tony hadn't been able to give up the suits. She'd screamed that she wished he were drinking instead of this, at least then he could have meetings to help him, and he had pointed out that every meeting he went to just encouraged him to build another.

She hadn't stepped foot inside the house since.

Rhodey's calls were too far and few between to be worried about.

And the simple truth was, since Tony no longer ran the company, there just wasn't any other calls besides Fury's. SHIELD's. And they no longer mattered either.

JARVIS had a function to fill, and he only opened the house when Iron Man burst out of the gate to save the world. JARVIS just wished he was capable of saving Tony.

No one was capable of saving Tony.

In the end, it was Captain America who came by the house. JARVIS couldn't quite place the motorcycle engine at first, so he had to cycle through the cameras until he found the right one.

The house opened up for Steve Rogers just the way it did for Tony– Tony's last code still in place– and JARVIS went through the appropriately scripted greetings.

"Mister Rogers, how can we help you today?"

Steve didn't hesitate as he smiled at the camera, and he waved off the automatically pouring drink in the spot by the door. "Lab, JARVIS. I need to talk to Tony." He wasn't waiting either as he headed down the stairs. JARVIS had no overrides for this, no way to stop him, and for the first time since Tony went through the wormhole, he was helpless.

"Sir is not in," he said, and Steve waved his hand again, idly.

"Nonsense. He hasn't been out in weeks. Besides. I saw him land just a little while ago. Believe me, JARVIS, whatever Tony's working on, I won't stop him. I just need to see him for a minute."

JARVIS couldn't even glitch the keypads, because Tony had known better than to try to make Steve use them. Steve never remembered they existed, especially on the glass walls. The lab was open to him, and Steve headed in.

Iron Man was still standing in the middle of the room. The light from the arc reactor glinted off the heap of metal that JARVIS had slowly been shaping.

"Tony," Steve said, but the word was tense, clipped. He approached the armor slowly, his hand just shy of touching it.

Not for the first time, JARVIS wished he had a real body. Hands. Feet. Something to force Captain America away from–

Steve pushed Iron Man and when the armor didn't move, he glanced sharply up at the camera. JARVIS didn't even have time to say anything before Steve ripped off the faceplate, and JARVIS watched Steve step back. His body heaved before he could even look away. He'd eaten carrots, JARVIS noticed idly.

"JARVIS," he breathed, the back of his hand pushing across his mouth. His saliva was blue in the light. "W-what the hell..?"

JARVIS focused in on the armor, on Tony Stark's face inside. His voice was very even as he said slowly, "The Phoenix protocol, sir."

For a long moment, Steve didn't move. When he finally did, he glanced over at the metal JARVIS had been working on, and then he looked back up at the camera. He wasn't like Tony, wasn't used to not looking at whoever he was talking to. The focus unnerved JARVIS, made him start up the drills again just to have something else to attract his attention.

"He's dead," Steve said. "He's been dead for–"

"Yes, sir. He has. But there is nothing to fear. His protocol is in place. I am filling his function as the nuclear deterrent and no one is the wiser yet."

There were three protocols that JARVIS could initiate without Tony's approval. All three of them have been very carefully designed for maximum efficiency. The first one was perhaps the most obvious, but it was undoubtedly one that never ceased to surprise people when they found out about it. Tony called it the Humpty Dumpty protocol. If he were to collapse in the lab or in the house or in the suit somewhere, JARVIS could summon medical assistance without being told to. Pepper had insisted after the Obadiah had taken Tony's arc reactor and left him for dead.

The second was a little more sensitive, and it was one that Tony and JARVIS didn't speak of. If possible, neither of them even let themselves think on it. It was too raw, and it spoke entirely too much of Tony's own self-awareness that JARVIS was capable of completely mimicking Tony, everything from his voice pattern to his preferred speech styles. Tony had made JARVIS separate and unique on purpose and thinking of situations where he would need to pass as Tony was simply uncomfortable at best. It was the Mockingbird protocol.

Tony had never spoken to JARVIS about the third one, the Phoenix protocol, and JARVIS had never let himself ask. Tony hadn't wanted to bring it up, and so help him, but JARVIS just wanted to forget it was even there.

Until he couldn't anymore.

"Yet? How long do you think you can keep this up?"

"Just for as long as I need to," JARVIS replied. "Dummy, clean that," he added, in Tony's voice, and Steve jumped as Dummy swung around.

The bot nudged Steve back two steps as he moved to clean up the carrots. And whatever else Steve had eaten recently, since he was not Tony and probably consumed more than just a half-forgotten bowl of whatever was handy. Steve probably ate more like Pepper.

"It's... It's been you," he said, and when Dummy moved back out of the way, Steve approached the armor again, reached out and put his hand on the chest piece. The room was dark in the shadows that his fingers cast.

"For some while, yes," JARVIS agreed.

"What... what is the Phoenix protocol?"

JARVIS pulled up the protocol, scanning it to make sure that Tony had not excluded Captain Rogers from knowing. But the simple truth was that Tony had not included any parameters about who was allowed to know or not know. It was JARVIS' call.

He hesitated.

"JARVIS?"

He committed.

"One final suit, sir. His phoenix suit. Large enough to hold the current mark. Then send all of his current research to Miss Potts. Send out his final messages to the team, Rhodey, Fury, and Miss Potts. Upload his farewell video to YouTube."

"And the suit?"

"He wants it fired into space. He always did enjoy flying."

"... Sounds lonely."

"That is why I have made some modifications to the suit, sir. His original designs did not include a hard drive sufficient for even the most stripped down version of me."

"You... you're going with him?"

"To the end, sir. Until the arc reactor gives out."

The shadows in the room moved as Steve tapped the blue light.

"... Turn on the lights. Show me what you need."

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a [prompt](http://avengerkink.livejournal.com/17613.html?thread=41311437#t41311437) on the kink meme.
> 
> **(gen) Stark, Reactor Light (character death)**   
> _The light doesn't go out when he dies._


End file.
